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Deutsche Bank offices raided in money laundering probe

Posted on Sunday, December 02, 2018 by Mercedes Poole

Deutsche Bank offices raided in money laundering probe

Police raided six Deutsche Bank offices in and around Frankfurt on Thursday over money laundering allegations linked to the "Panama Papers", the public prosecutor's office in Germany's financial capital said. As a result, the suspicion was arising that the German Bank customers were at the Foundation of offshore companies in tax havens to help, it was said in the Prosecutor's office.

On Thursday, almost 170 police officers and officials of the public Prosecutor, the Federal criminal police office, the tax police and the Federal police, the building had been searched by.

"We will of course continue to actively support the investigation and work constructively with the authorities", Karl von Rohr, Deutsche's co-deputy chief executive officer, said in a statement on Friday evening.

The "Panama Papers", which consist of millions of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, were leaked to the media in April 2016.

Deutsche Bank's hard week continued Friday with prosecutors raiding the lender's offices in Frankfurt, Germany, for a second straight day.

Two employees, aged 50 and 46, are now under investigation for allegedly failing to report suspicious transactions but prosecutors say the investigation could broaden.

The operation is targeting two staff members who are alleged to have set up off-shore firms for clients to launder money from criminality.

In 2016 alone, over 900 customers were served by a Deutsche Bank subsidiary registered on the British Virgin Islands, generating a volume of 311 million euros.

Money laundering has become a growing problem in Europe, where a series of scandals has exposed lax regulation. The market capitalization of the once-mighty bank is about $19 billion, not a significant amount more than the bank has had to pay in fines since the financial crisis.

Police vehicles parked in front of Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, on November 29, 2018. "The case is related to the Panama Papers", a spokesperson said. He has also alleged that family members of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's spy agency were using the bank for money laundering.

"The failure to hold banks accountable for money laundering encourages such criminal activity, including laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in Panama and other money laundering havens", said Gurule, now a professor at Notre Dame Law School.

Deutsche Bank has acknowledged that its anti-money laundering efforts have fallen short of financial rules.

The raid comes as Deutsche Bank tries to fix its tattered reputation. Some of the money reportedly went through Deutsche Bank and ended up in major capitals like London, according to The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.